Since this is the weekend that all Poshers dream of – #POSHFEST, I thought it would be interesting to give those who don’t know what Poshmark is along with those who weren’t able to get to Los Angeles to participate in #POSHFEST a snapshot of one of the founders of this amazing – and fun- app, Manish Chandra, CEO and Co-founder along with Tracy Sun,
Manish Chandra, CEO/Founder, Poshmark.com
Tracy Sun, Co-founder
This is a Q and A interview with Manish Chandra. I had to come up with questions fast and I did just, (after I did a quick perusal of Poshmark as it is today!)Step into the world of Manish Chandra and Poshmark with me. Let’s take a dive deep into the app/store culture and see what makes it tick and where it’s going!
Listing
Stevie Wilson/LA-Story.com
1) Poshmark started out as a sort of retail clearing house for things that would be considered fashion mistakes or items that had outlived their fashion lives. What was the initial response to Poshmark and what was the turning point for the brand/company when you knew it would not only survive but would thrive?
Manish Chandra
From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to build a marketplace that captured the social nature of shopping, and that meant focusing on building community from the ground up. When we first launched Poshmark, we held community meet-ups at District, a small wine bar in San Francisco. We’d invite a small group of local women to come together to talk about fashion and technology over a glass of wine with our team. These initial in person events provided us with valuable feedback and suggestions, and the women loved coming together to build their own personal fashion networks with other style lovers like themselves.
It was during these meetings that we learned about how women wanted to shop and how to recreate that fun, social experience on mobile. We took their insights and opinions to craft an addictive app that combines the fashion industry with a social community to offer the ultimate shopping experience. To simulate that in the app, we created Posh Parties, themed in-app events that happen three times a day where our community comes together in real-time to list, share, like, comment on and buy merchandise. We’ve even taken those events offline and regularly do live Posh Parties where hundreds of members of the Poshmark community come together to socialize around fashion and shop each other’s closets – all via their phones.
As a result, Poshmark has amassed a community of millions of users where now 1 in 50 women in the U.S. is selling fashion items on the app. Our community is addicted to the shopping experience we created – our average users spend 25 minutes per day in the app, opening it 7-8 times each day to browse, shop and interact with each other on the platform. We’ve made it so simple for anyone to sell their style that the Poshmark community uploads over three million dollars worth of inventory into the marketplace every day – right from their phones.
All this impressive growth is a result of the enthusiasm of our Poshers – this passionate, thriving community is what makes Poshmark so special.
Listing Notification
SW: 2) In terms of the original lifecycle of Poshmark, where is the site in terms of its business plan or goals?
Manish Chandra
Over the last four years we’ve worked hard to grow our business to offer our community everything they need to be able to run a successful online boutique straight from their mobile phones. Our features touch on every facet of the shopping experience to provide the optimum environment for connection over fashion. Because there is so much social engagement on the app, we are able to cater millions of shopping feeds to everyone’s individual style, personalized based on who they are following, what they are sharing, liking, commenting on, searching, and buying.
We’ve built a robust logistics platform where – not matter who of the millions of sellers you are shopping from on the app – you can depend and trust Poshmark. Both buyers and sellers are protected when shopping on Poshmark through services like Posh Protect, a feature to protect payments, and Posh Concierge, an exclusive verification and free authentication service for premium items over $500. Backend logistics are also streamlined with the help of Poshmark’s payment system, Posh Pay, which supports all transactions on the app, and Posh Post, one of the first USPS shipping labels created specifically for fashion.
At the end of 2015, we developed new tools that empower entrepreneurship on the platform. Earlier this year, we launched a Wholesale Marketplace to connect brands directly to Poshmark’s highly engaged network of influential sellers. Alongside this, we launched Boutiques, a new way for shoppers to discover sellers stocking new merchandise from indie brands. The result is top sellers on the app are now reaching six figures and garnering millions of followers shopping their style. Combined, these innovations have fueled a new generation of retailers using their social influence to drive sales – curating over four million items daily, leading to a sale being made every few seconds on the app.
Our goal now is to continue to rewrite retail in a way that hasn’t been done before, to become the largest fashion platform in the world that is powered by social. As we continue to fuel our community with features that focus on connection and discovery, we’re generating an entirely new type of marketplace where everyone’s style is shoppable, from anywhere and at any time.
Bid Notification
SW: 3) The site seems to have expanded to become a major shopping destination for those seeking to enhance their wardrobes at second-hand prices or resale store prices. Was this your intended goal or is it something of a surprise at the age range that is using Poshmark?
Manish Chandra
From the beginning we expected to make an app that anyone in the country – no matter where they come from – could use to connect around fashion and build a successful boutique around their personal style. We have a high concentration of millennials (recently named one of the top three shopping apps for college students in Goldman Sachs’ 2016 dotCommerce Report.)…but in reality, there is no typical user since the app caters to people from various ages and backgrounds. Everyone from teens, college students, professionals, fashion bloggers, celebrities, stay-at-home moms and even grandmothers are using the app to buy, sell and share their style.
SW: 4) Poshmark seems to have evolved into a destination,- not just for shopping discount- but aspirational shopping along with finding entrepreneurial opportunities. How do you foster or help propel women of any age to achieving those goals?
Manish Chandra
When we launched our Wholesale Marketplace last year we introduced the “Poshmark Fashion Entrepreneurs Fund” where we offered financial grants of $500 to 50 Poshmark sellers as seed investment, to help aspiring boutique owners expand their business beyond their closet purchase their first batch of retail inventory in Poshmark’s Wholesale Marketplace.
We want to do everything in our power to help our community grow and power them with the right tools they need to become the next generation of retailers.
SW: 5) Any key elements or portions of PoshFest that a first timer should check out? I would think age is a relevant factor. Should those under 18 bring their moms to this? How socially savvy does one have to be to become a posh- savvy person?
Manish Chandra
Women of all ages, and all across the country, come to PoshFest. Yes, daughters under 18 come with their moms. The two-day conference is created for attendees to be at every panel and workshop so they are able to learn as much as they can so they can apply their learnings to growing their Poshmark businesses.
SW: 6) How do Posh and Sip/Posh Parties compare to the PoshFest? What demographics are key to each type of event?
Manish Chandra
We created Posh and Sip to harken back to the early days of Poshmark when small groups of people came together and taught each other to use the app. Now they are thrown all across the country by Poshers, getting together to list as a group or even just hang out and talk about Poshmark. Even though PoshFest is a huge conference with over 300 people, the connections that are made feel very special.
Manish Chandra and colleagues
SW: 7) Future events?
Manish Chandra
Blurring online/offline has always been key to the Poshmark community culture so we are often throwing events ourselves or encouraging our community members to throw events in their towns. We also do real life Posh Parties in cities all across the U.S. every few months to meet with and learn more about the women using our platform. Users can stay in the loop about these real-life Posh Parties and Community Meet-Ups through our blog.
SW: 8) Any key take-aways that you are hoping really make an impact with the guests at PoshFest?
Manish Chandra
Our biggest goal is to inspire every single person who attends PoshFest, empowering them to become express their personal style and become successful entrepreneurs on the platform. We want to show our community that anyone can create a business on Poshmark if they leverage the tools available. We hope that with all our panels, guest speakers, and workshops, everyone leaves PoshFest feeling empowered to become a fashion entrepreneur.
Posh Party with Manish Chandra!
SW:9) What’s your biggest surprise about the growth of this platform?
Manish Chandra
Our biggest surprise is how women come together every day to help each other on the platform grow their businesses and succeed. The community is very powerful on Poshmark, and our community does everything they can to help each other grow.
We’ve also been able to grow into an infinitely scalable marketplace because of our commitment to powering community and commerce with innovative features. We’re providing users with unprecedented access to today’s most coveted brands and trends by combining social and curation. As a result, our community has created a unique social merchandising engine – when they curate the best items to their followers they help match supply and demand – leading to better discovery for buyers and more sales for sellers. Women are curating over four million items daily and we are processing and analyzing hundreds of millions of pieces of social data points every day to personalize each woman’s shopping experience – introducing her to relevant people and products based on similar style preferences.
NYC Meetup with Manish Chandra
SW: 11) Everyone wants to be a successful seller. Everyone wants to be scoring great bargains. Any specific tips?
Manish Chandra
The best way to both sell items and discover great bargains on the platform is by sharing fashion items with your followers. We have a very unique social merchandising engine on Poshmark. Our community curate over four million items daily for each other, and as a result a sale is made every few seconds on the platform. Sharing is the most powerful tool on Poshmark – because when women share items they are helping other women discover the best merchandise available, while also helping sellers make more sales.
We also created a fun and simple way to bring buyers and sellers together in real-time with Posh Parties, virtual shopping events that happen three times a day inside the app around different themes – introducing shoppers to new sellers and helping to better match supply and demand. The top in-app Posh Parties bring together tens of thousands of users who list over 500,000 items to the party.
In addition, we’ve also developed features to help women both buy and sell. The first feature we created is Make An Offer–a fast and easy way for a buyer to privately negotiate the best possible price for that item they are lusting after. By guaranteeing no risk of another shopper seeing counter-offers, we are taking away the final friction of selling for our community through direct one-to-one auctions. The second feature is called Price Drop–where women will receive a notification from the app that an item they liked has dropped in price. Because women like so many items uploaded into the marketplace, this is an easy way for them to keep track of those items going on sale, ensuring they score great bargains.
SW: 12) I see that Ashton Kutcher is doing his own sell-off. How have men embraced this platform? Where and how will this segment grow?
Manish Chandra
Earlier this year we expand beyond women’s fashion by biting off two new huge categories: kids and mens. We’ve seen a lot of growth in both categories because now our community is able to tap into three closets vs. just one.
Ashton is one of our investors so he was excited to finally be able to join the Poshmark community. The results we’ve seen with engagement to his Pop-Up have been outstanding – his first batch of inventory sold out within an hour and his second batch in only three minutes! Over the next few months, we’ll be introducing more Pop-Ups featuring people and brands everyone knows and loves.
End of Interview!
For a touch more insight, here’s a video courtesy of Inc.com’s update & interview with Manish Chandra and Tracy Sun!
Thank you to Manish Chandra for his time in answering these questions. As a person who has seen Poshmark from a buyer’s perspective and also via seller’s perspective (my daughter!) It’s a very interesting– and rapidly evolving- platform. Want to be that fashion curator? This is the way to do it, neither age nor financial resources will stop you. It’s all about how creative you can be!
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DEALS and STEALS(Affiliate Links)
I am required to tell you that I am an “affiliate” with these brands. I curate deals that offer bonuses, bargains and great products –and some are very specifically for this site to feature to YOU!If you purchase via my link, I make a very small percentage for that purchase. I pick the best products, vendors and deals I can find!
Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner
If you are going to feature content from LA-Story.com including images, podcasts or videos including the accompanying text, please respect copyright provisions. We require a notation of content origination (meaning credit tag), a linkback to the specific page & please email the link to stevie@la-story.com before the piece goes live. LA-Story.com, LA-Story Recessionista, Celebrity Stylescope, Celebrity Style Slam Trademark/Copyright KBP Inc./TNBT Inc 2007-18
